Priya Chandra Segaran

I am looking for opportunities to gain experience on the ground, preferably in clinical or community settings. I would like to have the chance to apply all I have learnt from my previous jobs and education in the real world. 

My most recent job was in the Special Educational Needs Division (SEND) of the Ministry of Education. I served 3 stints, 1 as a research officer and 2 as a research assistant with my team. This spanned across 14 months in total. As a research officer, I administered 2 types of literacy assessments to P3 students. I also developed online word cards on Quizlet for the dyslexia programme. I helped with administrative tasks like attendance-taking for in-house training and collection of reply slips from parents. As a research assistant with the identification sub-team, I liaised with schools about parent consent forms for assessments. I administered Raven's 2 on iPads and reviewed Vineland assessment reports based on teachers' responses. I administered 5 sub-tests of Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (3rd edition). Finally, as a research assistant with the resource development team, I did quality checks for mock-ups of new resources to be mass-printed and distributed to schools. I proof-read lesson plans to ensure that they were worded clearly without errors. I reformatted lesson plans and student worksheets for clearer organisation.

Before my time in SEND, I was an ARROW coach in Temasek Secondary School in 2017. I tutored academically weaker Secondary 4 students preparing for 'O' Levels. I was also the relief teacher for classes, delegating work pieces as per their teachers' instructions. I helped organised the whole student body's nominations  for the "Most Caring Teacher" awards, by instruction from the Vice-Principal.

My first proper job in 2015 was at the Banking Computer Services Private Limited as a data operator. I quality-checked all POSB/DBS cheques that came in and entered information into the system such as amount and account numbers at a quick pace with accuracy. I was the only contract staff trusted to match the payee on the cheque to the account holder's information, which was typically part of the full-time staff's job scope.

I chose Psychology as my major in University because I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of myself and people in general, to understand why people act the way they do. I enrolled in the University at Buffalo programme by the Singapore Institute of Management. My course spanned 3 years. I took various prerequisite modules such as “Introductory Psychology”, “The Mind and the Person” and “Psychological statistics”, to name a few. I was also able to choose some out of interest, namely “Psychology of Personality”, “Abnormal Child Psychology” and “Adolescent Development” with the latter 2 contributing to my passion about mental health struggles amongst the younger population. Having studied in the American programme, my lecturers crafted exam questions that focused on the bigger picture rather than minute details of the content we learnt, improving my ability to take on a macro perspective over the years. Eventually, I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology with highest distinction.